EagleEye Multi-Aperture Airborne FSO Communication System

Point-to-point Free-Space Optical (FSO) communication systems have been demonstrated and are commercially available. Additionally, the technology to develop such systems continue to evolve, such thatlow cost, compact FSO systems are now a possibility. FSO systems have many desirable attributes for Navy aircraft and surface vessels, especially their ability to operate without RF emissions, their immunity toRF interference and jamming, and the inherent LPI/LPD operation. However, to achieve widespread use in naval applications, a more advanced communication network is required, with the ability tosimultaneously communicate between multiple ships and aircraft. To address this need, SA Photonics is developing our EagleEye™ airborne FSO communication system. The EagleEye system is anairborne version of our shipboard MultiEye™ system which is being developed under an ONR Phase II SBIR program. EagleEye has an identical architecture as MultiEye, but includes additional functionality tosupport operation on airborne platforms including a fully stabilized optical head, a dedicated Wide-Field-of-View (WFOV) acquisition sensor, and dedicated acquisition beacon. The combination of these featuresallows operation on airborne platforms and supports rapid, autonomous acquisition. EagleEye is compatible with MultiEye, and will enable a wide variety of ship-to-air communications needs to be met.